So how would my first base station antenna be?

[ImageJPEG]

It's a dipole antenna I'm going to put horizontally in my living room.

http://www.amazon.com/Falcon- ... 137&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/RG-58A- ... pd_sim_e_1

Now what could I use as a ground? I'm currently using about 7 or 8 feet of speaker wire connected to two screws into the radio. That alone brought my SWR to about 1.5 across the band compared to ~3. I still, however get about a mile range for both RX and TX (this is with some very basic antenna that plugs into the back of the radio without any cables or whatever.

By the way, this setup is for my Teaberry 23 channel radio.

['Doc]

A dipole doesn't require a ground to work correctly, it's two halves amount to the 'hot' and 'ground', it's balanced.
What kind of 'range' can you get with an indoor antenna? Always less than the same antenna outside. After that, 'range' isn't easily determined, and there isn't any 'set' range for any particular antenna. Range is determined by propagation too, and that's the biggy, not the antenna so much. there's no such thing as a 'set' range for any antenna, it's just a sales gimmick.
- 'Doc

[ImageJPEG]

Alright, that sounds great then because I have very limited room. Also, If I were to face the antenna in a north and south direction (horizontally) would I get better TX and RX east and west and vice versa?

['Doc]

How 'directional' a dipole gets is determined by it's height above effective ground. Until about a wave length (36 feet +/- some), dipoles just aren't all that directional. They do tend to favor the 'sides' rather than the 'ends' though. If your primary interest is E-W then orienting the thing N-S would be a good idea. That "effective ground" has to take what's under that antenna into consideration too, as in the house. That'd tend to make the antenna 'think' it was closer to ground (dirt) than it actually is. That typically means that even if it's in the attic of a 20 story building it's gonna work out to much less height than that. See where that's going? And then you can figure that the other stuff in that attic will have some effect too, like electrical wiring, AC ducting, whatever.
It's a 'crap-shoot', so try it and see what happens. The only thing that anyone can 'predict' about your installation is that it will be less than optimal. But then, not having an antenna at all will always be much worse...
- 'Doc